In a game
feature live by ITV, the watching English football public was able to see
first-hand an awesome display from the young pretenders from Leeds. It sent out a huge warning to
Manchester United and any other team now in United’s
wake that here were true Championship contenders playing a breathtaking style
of football, which saw them sitting proudly at the top of the First Division,
and justifiably so on merit, having demolished a team that had won their
previous five First Division games.

Without the
injured Gary Speed, United opted to use John McClelland in central defence with Chris Whyte, with
Chris Fairclough man-marking Tony Daley, which
released Mel Sterland and Tony Dorigo
for more attacking roles down the flanks and this is where United were
strongest. Tony Dorigo picked up the “Man of the
Match” award, while Sterland was a constant threat
and architect for United’s goals and also managed to
get his own name on the score-sheet.

United
showed that they are the team that all the others have to beat in the
Championship race. They moved to the top of the First Division for the third
time in a month, with a spectacular victory over Aston Villa, who had made a
dash up the table themselves with five successive wins before this demolition
job in front of the watching TV cameras. It was a triumph of strategy, the use
of set-pieces, the eye for an opening of Gordon Strachan,
and, for the second successive game, the attacking determination of full-back
Mel Sterland that carried Leeds to their third
four-goal show away from home in the season to date. While Tony Dorigo picked up the “Man of the Match” award, maybe the
one who really deserved it was Chris Fairclough who
limped through the last ten minutes with a strain, but never-the-less managed
to maintain his match long shadowing of Villa’s high-speed danger-man, Tony
Daley.

The victory
was obtained on the worst pitch that United have encountered so far in the
season. Despite that Leeds
had ten attempts on goal, twice the Villa output, and received nine corners
compared to Villa’s three and also conceded fewer free kicks. They should have
surged into the lead in the twenty-first minute, when Mel Sterland’s
strong header sent Rod Wallace clear, but Les Sealey
advanced and dived to block the striker’s shot. Five minutes before the
interval, with Villa expecting a long throw-in from Mel Sterland,
but it was a short one to Gordon Strachan who played
it into Sterland’s path and he put over a swinging
cross into the six yard area and Lee Chapman got in a glancing header. Les Sealey got his fingers to it bur could only push it into
the path of Rod Wallace, who tapped in at the far post.

In the
opening minute of the second half United doubled their advantage. Gordon Strachan’s corner was headed on at the near post by Chris Whyte for Mel Sterland to dive
through the mud and flying boots to head in the second. Ten minutes later the
game was dead and buried with probably United’s best
goal. Gordon Strachan’s short corner to Gary
McAllister saw the Leeds’
Captain accepting a back-heeled pass on the left-wing by-line to hit a low
cross for Lee Chapman to hit in, almost on the goal-line.

Villa shook
themselves and though Paul McGrath survived with just
a booking when he pulled down Rod Wallace on a run on goal, Villa recovered
some pride with a goal engineered by Tony Daley, with his only effective
contribution of the afternoon. He put Dalian Atkinson
through, and when the ex-Sheffield Wednesday striker’s shot was parried by John
Lukic, Dwight Yorke tapped
home. Chris Whyte won an important header to deny Dalian Atkinson, close in, soon afterwards and Dwight Yorke volleyed spectacularly wide with an overhead kick But
Leeds still had a little left and Mel Sterland
provided the opening with a deep cross from the right for Lee Chapman to rise
majestically and score his second with a diving header in the dying seconds.

Gary
McAllister voiced the growing mood of confidence at United’s
rise to the summit of the League when he said, “It’s no good shouting and
bawling that we are going to win the title, but we know we can do it.” Captain
Gordon Strachan, who was fast approaching his
thirty-fifth birthday, and had a hand in all the four Leeds goals, enthused, “I am very, very
proud, not only of the fact that we’ve got back to the top, but the way we did
it. The image of this club means a lot to me and to turn on a performance like
that in front of millions of viewers was tremendous.” Villa Manager, Ron
Atkinson, was full of praise for the United Captain, saying, “I call him the
world’s greatest winger and I’ve got all the time for the little man. With all
his craft, his enthusiasm, it was magnificent to see.” He was equally impressed
by Leeds, adding, “On the evidence today
they are the best team we have played. We had our backsides kicked, they
spanked us. Players like Strachan, Sterland and Chapman they are senior players who have been
there before and knew how to go about winning.” The Leeds Manager, Howard
Wilkinson, described it as one of the best performances of his management but
said, “We had to work hard initially because Villa were in full song and
obviously very confident. We had to deal with that first and we did that very
well. We gradually made room, time and space to start to play in difficult
conditions, because it is not a good pitch.” He was making no predictions about
the Championship, but observed, “We’ve been there now two weeks, which should
be an encouragement, but every game will be as hard.” Man of the Match winner,
full back Tony Dorigo, was very enthusiastic, saying,
“Now that we have hit the top again, we have to think in terms of being there
to stay. We have to remember what got us there in the first place and try to
keep it going. We are going to think positively.”

Alternate
Report:

Any
considerations that Leedsare fake contenders to the First Division title were
dismissed by the arrogant football that overwhelmed Aston Villa in this game.
The strutting contempt which carried the Yorkshire club back to the top of the table claimed one
of the sides whose own progress in the season has been marked with an
impressive conviction. But once Footballer of the Year Gordon Strachan, Gary McAllister and the irrepressible David Batty
had established control across the scarred stretches of Villa Park, the football reached exhibition
levels.

Villa had
won their five previous First Division games, suggesting that tis would be the toughest confrontation Leeds’ defence
had confronted. That they came through it with just one blemish spoke volumes
for the expertise with which John McClelland marked his return to the side. For
a long time, to the TV’s nervous chagrin, the game was bogged down in the
middle of a pock-marked pitch which deadened the flow of any move of flowing
intent. It was going to require the instinct of a class player to break the
deadlock of what seemed potentially the third Sunday goal-less draw. In Strachan, Leeds had such a man. The Scottish International
worked a sweet move at a throw-in and when Lee Chapman’s plunging header was
pushed backwards by Les Sealey, the £1.6million Rod
Wallace scrambled the ball across the line for his second goal in successive
League games.

The game
was won and lost in the first eleven minutes of the second half. The second
goal was pure Leeds. A corner from Gordon Strachan, an header from Chris Whyte
and Mel Sterland flinging himself into the space
where no Villa defender had had the sense to pursue him. The third was even
better. Gary McAllister and Gordon Strachan worked a
left-wing corner move of such precision that Strachan
strolled along the by-line for five yards before driving the ball across to
where Lee Chapman could not conceivably miss.

Villa’s
goal came out of the blue. Tony Daley sped the ball on to Dalian
Atkinson. John Lukic could not hold the shot and
Dwight Yorke scored his fifth goal in successive
matches. It was imperative that Villa scored an immediate second, if they were
to have a semblance of a chance. It did not come. Instead, straining for a
second left Villa vulnerable to the kind of counter that Leeds demonstrated in the final minute.
Again it was Gordon Strachan who prompted a Mel Sterland overlap and Lee Chapman climaxed the win with a
horizontal header.

Match Action: (Courtesy Mark Ledgard)

Mel Sterland celebrates
his goalGary
McAllister looks on approvingly, as David Batty gets in a telling tackle on
Tony Daley.

Gordon Strachan gets
on top of Kevin RichardsonMel Sterland and David Batty face up to a free-kick

John McClelland beats Dalian Atkinson to the ball

Gary McAllister smiles as Rod Wallace forces
home the first goal, with Les Sealey and Kevin
Richardson not so impressed

Captain Gordon Strachan
leads the team as McAllister, Fairclough, Chapman,
Wallace and a leaping Batty celebrate their victory